~ just another artist … mentor … mood elevator … muse

Where creativity is born.

I started from a non-educated drawing background. Doing it only because I liked it. I was a beautician for many years! I got out of that business, due to the chemicals. From there I went on to doing murals on walls; which I was able to do solely based on the love of being able to transmit ideas onto/into the homes of people, to be forever cherished, instead of trying to sell paintings on a sidewalk or in a gallery. From there I got my first job illustrating children’s books — from a painting that I did of some mice in a client’s kitchen.

All of that background just to preface and point out the fact that it has been the factor of ‘doing it’ that has been the only key to my improvement over the years. I still have very little education in the area — other than that which I have created in myself based on observation — but, I feel that observation is a powerful key in the subject of drawing; all art, to be exact. The best work is that which the artist produces from life and his interaction with and observation of it.

All knowledge to be found in this world was originally empirical.
It did not come from a book or a teacher; someone figured it out based on observation.

True, it is often faster to have someone show you how to do something, but to move into an area on your own and teach yourself based on your own observation, that is where creativity is born — the ability to reach beyond the observations of others. To see something that no one else has seen before.

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Robin Griggs Wood

In the past, I’ve never been much compelled to write a blog. However, with the numbers in one online group I belong to reducing like bills in a shore-leave-sailor’s pocket, a social network is possibly coming to a close for me -- so I am finding the need for an outlet of another kind. Or, maybe I’ve had a minor stroke and don’t know it.

I’m an artist . . . but that’s not saying much, because I believe, and it is something that I have devoted my time heavily to convey, that art expression is an inherent property of human nature. The media may vary, but not the innate disposition.

Those that know me have heard my “talent-as-myth” diatribe all too often, and if you are a new reader here, you will encounter it soon enough. It is my goal to change the notion, which a great number of people resign to, that one needs to have “talent” to pursue the art they feel or want.

With that as preface, I will probably devote a portion of this blog to inspiring artists, but I also plan to impart other conceptions that I have about life in general, with the goal of elevating, encouraging, enlivening or energizing those who read here.

Let me begin with this:
I wish for you the ability to create for yourself all that your heart desires.
Start!